Phil Jackson's $25K Fine for Tampering With Derek Fisher Not a Big Deal

Fister and Phil Jackson, Knicks president of basketball operations, have a long history when they both worked for the Los Angeles Lakers. Since taking the job at Madison Square Garden, Jackson has been saying he intends to bring a coach who knows about the triangle offense, the type of system basketball that he wants implemented in New York. He also wants a coach who has been through ups and downs and knows how to handle perilous situations and work things out for the benefit of the organization. Well, Fisher isn’t a coach yet, but that does not matter for Jackson.

On the last interview with the media, Jackson stated that Fisher is indeed one of his priorities, but it all depends on what Fisher wants to do, considering he’s got family in Los Angeles.

Today, Marc Stein of the ESPN reported that Jackson is not just wondering and working with possibilities from a healthy distance but he is indeed tampering with Fisher and soon to be full on recruiting him for the coaching job now that Fisher’s season is over after the Oklahoma City Thunder were eliminated from the competition. Jackson made comments on the record about his wishes and the name of Derek Fisher was publicly linked to the Knicks while he was still playing for Oklahoma. At the time, according to the NYDN, the reporters specifically asked if Jackson wanted to keep this off the records, but he made sure to put it on the record.

Jackson is going to take a cut out of his $12 million he is set to make this year to pay the $25,000 fine.